Talkin’ ’bout my generation

Starting a column with the phrases “in my day” or “when I was a kid” immediately poses the risk of pigeon-holing the writer as an outdated old fuddy duddy.

The use of phrases such as “fuddy duddy” and “pigeon-holed” further confirms everyone’s suspicions that the writer is not very hip.

Worse, the use of the word “hip” instantly brands the writer as Woodstock vintage. Then, like a set of falling dominos, terminology which includes Woodstock and dominos throws the writer into a stereotyped age bracket of ancient music festivals and archaic board games; and nothing to do with trendy RTD drinks and pizza chains.

Well let me just point out that Woodstock the music festival is about to be re-launched, proving that if you stick with an old idea long enough, it will eventually become fashionable again. I have several pairs of pants in that category, just waiting for their time to shine again.

Coolest cats

For many readers of this column, terms such as “fuddy duddy” and “pigeon- holing” actually strike a sympathetic and understanding nerve. It seems you relate to this column because it appeals to the pre-online generation. At the risk of pigeon-holing a whole lot of you, it appears you are indeed fuddy duddys.

Nothing wrong with that.

You are cool cats.

Which means you are hip, and we are not talking about hip replacements - although that is definitely a recurring theme amongst RR readers.

Commitment lacking

You are in fact the coolest cats of your era and arguably a whole lot more hipper than the seriously uncool youth of today, who, it has just been revealed, spend more time online than viewing television.

This shows a serious lack of commitment, considering they have twenty gazillion channels to choose from.

In my day, when I was a kid, we only had one channel to watch and it was in black and white.

We watched it no matter what was screening, until the Goodnight Kiwi came along and shut down, or some fuddy duddy like a parent came along and switched off the set. Not by the remote, mind you, but with the large switch on the front. Then it was turned off at the wall as well, just in case. Remotes hadn’t been invented. Back then, Te Puke was remote.

High Chaparral

It did not matter that Little Joe Cartwright was in a dire predicament on Bonanza or Lassie was about to save the boy down the well; or that Manolito on High Chaparral had solved a crisis on the ranch. Because they are all dead now. Except Linda Cristal, who played Victoria. I think she is still going, and probably on her 17th husband. Many of you old folk will remember her as the smoking hot wife of the ranch guy.

I bet you don’t know this: in real life, she got married in 1950 and it lasted just five days before being annulled. There’s a woman you don’t want to mess with.

Little Joe (Michael Landon) went on to star in Little House on the Prairie, which I never ever watched, but suspect it might have been about a long drop in a paddock.

Good trends

So we have this whole generation of young persons who are so engrossed online that their internet time is overtaking their television time.

There’s a lot of comment in the main stream media about this, but is it really so bad?

It could be a good trend. In my day, if a young person was engrossed in the newspaper, it was considered a good trait. They were worldly and aware, interested and engaged. The internet is the new incarnation of the old media but with a few more bells and whistles, and it could be argued it’s better for kids to be searching for what interests them rather than being force-fed programming from a television channel.

That’s what happened to previous generations, and that led to some chaos.

World disasters such as pollution, Abba, fondue sets, the Leyland P76 and disco.

Forging independence

It may be better that the young generation are forging their own path to enlightenment and entertainment. To learn how to make decisions in the big wide world.

How else are we going to prepare them to repel the bandits and take over the ranch?

And now we have some excellent options for internet viewing, such as our own SunLive 24/7 news site, the fledgling national site Newsie and the brilliant and informative Tauranga City App. Until next week, stay cool cats and remember, keep your extremities clear of pigeon holes, don’t ride a bicycle in your flares and always switch the tele off at the wall.